March 14, 2014

Russia's connect the dots

Connect the dots on events in Russia. I'm not talking about the Ukraine, but clearly all of this is related to the crisis in the Crimea. We know that Putin is a totalitarian. He wants Ukrainian territory. He wants as much as he can get away with taking without consequences. But I'm talking about connecting the dots with respect to something else entirely. What I'm talking about are the covert actions that are going on while the Ukrainian crisis plays out.

Thursday the Russian government shut down several websites critical of the government in an effort by the power hungry leadership (i.e. Putin) to consolidate power and crush dissent. That's Dot #1. Dot #2: Likely in response to the website crackdown, the Kremlin website and other government sites in Russia have been hacked.

Hackers knocked out the Russian presidency's website several times on Friday and brought down the central bank website, the Kremlin press service said.

"A powerful cyber attack is under way on the (Kremlin) site," a Kremlin spokeswoman said, adding that the attack was continuing and security experts were trying to prevent further disruptions.

As of yet there's no Dot #3. But I hope that Dot #3 turns out to be that the hacking is coming from the U.S. It would provide me with a sense that the administration is actually doing something about the crisis. Because this, is not cutting it:

One way of telling that the Kerry response is effete, is the Russian position coming out of the meeting. It hasn't really changed.

Unfortunately it is far more likely that Dot #3 is that the hacking is coming from dissenting parties within Russia (I do not mean political parties). While that is encouraging, it has more elements of discouragement within it. Internal dissent in Russia is fractured and on the run. It has been growing ever more so since Putin initially took power in Russia. It would also mean that the United States isn't doing enough other than sending over more drones (an Obama favorite) to be shot down or captured by the Russians.